"I can't tell you the details, but I can say that we have now joined up with the Azov Regiment. Hundreds of marines managed to escape, including the wounded," he said.
In turn, blogger Roman Ponomarenko said that some marines had decided to stay at the Azovmash engineering enterprise in the port city of Mariupol, while another group had made an attempt to break through to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine, located 90 kilometers from Mariupol, but their column was broken.
"Not all units of the brigade made a breakthrough, but only a small separate combat group led by a brigadier general," Ponomarenko wrote on Facebook on April 12.
"We do not know why this happened. The bulk of the marines and the units assigned to them remained at Azovmash... According to the Russians, the column was almost immediately discovered by a reconnaissance drone. It was attacked, equipment was destroyed, people were scattered. There are casualties and prisoners among our soldiers."
Despite this, according to Ponomarenko, most marines still managed to successfully link up with the Azov Regiment.
"There were several hundred of them, led by one of the two commanders of the36th brigade, (and) in addition there were soldiers from other units. As of the morning of April 12, the Azov soldiers led these forces through enemy positionsto the permanent base of the Azov Regiment in Mariupol, significantly strengthening it. For obvious reasons, I will not disclose the details of the operation."
The report was later confirmed by Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff.